Donor Lines for Drought Tolerance Breeding

To identify the best DT donors for breeding a large set of lines from abiotic and biotic stress breeding programs in CIMMYT and ITTA were screened for tolerance to reproductive-stage drought stress across 4 countries over 3 years

Temperatures within sub-Saharan Africa are projected to increase by 2050. To make sure these DT donors will continue to perform under drought in future environments experiments screening for DT under higher temperatures were also conducted. Many lines tolerant to drought lost their tolerance under higher temperatures and these lines were excluded from the list.

Grain yield (t ha-1)a

DTMA

Pedigree

HG

Colour

Texture

Drought

Drought + heat

Well-watered

251

La Posta Sequia C7-F18-3-2-1-1b

B

White

Flint

3.16

1.13

7.04

217

DTPWC9-F24-4-3-1b

AB

White

Flint

3.10

1.43

6.97

-

DTPYC9-F46-1-2-1-1-1b

AB

Yellow

Flint

3.07

1.23

6.73

-

DTPYC9-F46-1-2-1-1-2b

AB

Yellow

Flint

3.07

1.58

7.12

103

POB.502 c3 F2-10-3-2-1b

B

White

Flint

3.07

1.17

7.54

La Posta Sequia C7-F64-2-6-2-2b

B

White

Flint

3.06

1.39

7.72

261

La Posta Sequia C7-F180-3-1-1-1b

B

White

Flint

3.03

1.13

7.94

Check (CML442/CML444)

2.36

0.96

7.70

Number of locations

7

3

7

H

0.64

0.50

0.84

Trial mean

2.58

1.13

6.88

aadjusted means (best linear unbiased predictions)

bperformance when testcrossed with CML539

For further information, including seed requests, please contact Jill Cairns (
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) or Benhilda Masuka (
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)